PLOTTING AHEAD – Director Dan Adams, left, talks over a scene with David Carradine, one of his constellation of stars.

The movie Chatham will finally get a national release later this month under the title The Golden Boys.

Shot in West Barnstable and other locations around the Cape in the winter and spring of 2007, the film will open in about two dozen theaters on April 17. Locally, the movie starring David Carradine, Bruce Dern and Rip Torn will be shown at the Regal Cinema at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis. Most of the locations the movie will play during its first week of release are in Florida, the result of test screenings that showed its biggest appeal was to older audiences, said director Dan Adams.

“No one is making films for that audience,” said Adams, a West Barnstable resident. The comedy about three retired sea captains who advertise for a wife to keep house for them is the type of non-violent, family-oriented entertainment Adams calls “old-fashion filmmaking.”

“I knew there was a market for this type of film,” he said. “But it’s one thing to know it and another thing to prove it. We were finally able to prove it.”

His first proof came last year when the film broke box office records during a run at the Cape Cinema in Dennis. A second test run in Boca Raton, Fla., demonstrated that the Cape showing wasn’t a fluke. Adams said the film did well its first week with little advertising; but to the surprise of the filmmakers, business increased in the second week by 20 percent, and went up another 30 percent in the third week. That’s unprecedented in an industry where much of a film’s business comes during opening week. The test marketing showed while filmgoers over 40 enjoyed the movie, those under 25 didn’t understand or like it, Adams said.

The tests caught the eye of distributor Roadside Attractions. Adams and his producers had been working on domestic distribution with Sony Pictures, which had requested the test marketing.

“The results were so good that Roadside Attractions jumped in and made a much better offer than Sony was giving us,” he said.

Roadside is taking the test screening seriously. Aside from Hyannis and Great Barrington in Massachusetts, the film is opening in only two other locations outside of Florida — New York City and Charlotte, N.C. The distribution deal calls for the movie to open initially in 10 major markets, and then expand over the coming weeks.

“It’s what used to be called a platform release,” explained Adams. “You open in certain markets, build interest, and as it grows, the release grows.”

Based on the Joseph C. Lincoln novel Cap’n Eri, the film is set in Chatham in 1905. Many local landmarks made it into the film, including a section of Main Street dressed to reflect the period. On the Mid-Cape, the West Barnstable depot “stood in” as the Chatham train stop. The main cast includes Chatham resident and legendary actress Julie Harris. Mariel Hemingway, Angelica Torn and Jason Alan Smith also star in the movie.

CBS Sunday Morning has tentatively scheduled an interview with Carradine, Dern and Torn for April 19 to discuss the film and getting older in Hollywood.

In May Adams will begin filming another Joseph Lincoln-inspired movie, The Lightkeepers, which is slated to star Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen and Blythe Danner. The tone and story are similar to The Golden Boys, said the director, and the movie should appeal to the same audience. Shooting is scheduled to start in May at Race Point in Provincetown; other Cape locations, including Chatham, are tentatively included in the schedule.

The film gained Adams a bit of notoriety in the Hollywood press after he was sued for $5 million by actor James Caan, who alleged breach of contract after he lost the lead role to Dreyfuss.

In the fall, Adams will shoot a big-screen version of the 1960s television western The Big Valley. He said he’s in talks with Annette Bening for the role played by Barbara Stanwyck in the original series.

Unlike The Golden Boys and The Lightkeepers, The Big Valley won’t be shot locally.

“Two films in a row to go home after work every night is fantastic,” Adams said. “I knew it wasn’t going to last forever.”

For more information about “The Golden Boys,” including a list of theaters where it will be playing, go to www.thegoldenboysmovie.com.